


weight of the world’s a little lighter

by strikereurekapitcrew



Series: repetition [5]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: AU - reconciliation, Gen, Julia Burnsides Lives, Post-Canon, dwelf julia burnsides, eighth bird julia burnsides, polyblaster hell
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-09
Updated: 2018-07-09
Packaged: 2019-06-07 16:45:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15223418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/strikereurekapitcrew/pseuds/strikereurekapitcrew
Summary: It’s going to be great.What’s not great is that it’s almost noon and he’s not seen Julia. Or Lucretia.





	weight of the world’s a little lighter

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hops](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hops/gifts).



> This is like…. Wayyyyyy far ahead in the timeline of repetition. I’m team reconciliation, and honestly, this idea just kinda kicked me in the face. This is for hops, because I had soft feelings and promised her some good content of Her Boy. title from daughter by sleeping at last.

Parties are Taako’s thing.

Now that he feels comfortable actually cooking for his family again, and now that… yknow, with some help, he’s actually got his whole family again, Lucretia included, most of the time… well. They’ve had a lot of heartache. It’s all the more reason to celebrate the wins where they have them.

Today’s win is Julia’s birthday.

It’s…

Eh. Weird is a good way to put it, though not necessarily the word that the wizard would use. It’s the math that’s getting to him, trying to figure out if Julia should be referred to as 36, or 136, both or neither. She’s really rocking the whole cougar thing, and only scoffs at him half the time he makes the joke, so he thinks that 134 is a good bet. 

He, also, will  _ not _ be admitting that aloud. Taako despises the reminders of Wonderland etched into her flesh, and despises the fact that the half-elf that he and Lup have always referred to as their teeny baby love is now  _ their _ age. He wishes, desperately, that this was only her 36th birthday, that she didn’t have the first wisps of silver at the peak of her forehead, the early greying a lingering mark of her mother’s clan. There are a lot of things they could be thinking up, but it’s Julia’s day, and he’s created quite the spectacle of it all.

Even though she insisted against a spectacle, Hero of Faerun and Raven’s Roost and all.

Really. Did she even know him? You’d think they spent a century sharing a boyfriend or something.

 

The late April sun is warm, though it’s a little bit windy at the Roost. It rained the night before, but the sky is clear of storm clouds, and by noon, everything is in full swing. The thing is, given her participation as a leader during Story and Song, it’s a spectacle, even without Taako’s help. He just… kicks it up a notch, natch.

With Ren’s help, obvi. She’s his right hand lady, and much better about being by his side than Sazed ever was, for a number of reasons. The young Drow is at the center of the square, tending bar and keeping an eye on the catering tables. There are children everywhere, absolutely everywhere, and parents with watchful eyes, and Angus is helping to split some of them into teams, probably for some soccer games. 

Magnus and Barry linger near the Hammer and Tails, a big fluffball of a Chow Chow at the latter’s feet. Taako smiles, lifts a hand to wave to the pair; he knows damn well that if Lup can find a way, she’s taking that dog home with them to the Astral Plane, and that Kravitz will have his feathers in a tizzy over it.

It’s going to be great.

What’s not great is that it’s  _ almost noon _ and he’s not seen Julia. Or Lucretia.

Lucretia isn’t as much a loss.

No, that’s not true, because he loves her, too, again.  _ Again _ , like he ever really stopped. And she’s not weird about sharing Magnus again, but sometimes it still seems very precarious, like a crystal flute in a room that’s a little too loud and uproarious. 

But he’s not seen her, and he’s not seen the birthday girl, and that’s both amusing -because Istus  _ knows _ those two are all over each other, it’s sickeningly sweet-, and distressing -because  _ for Istus’ knitting sake, he put work into this party, and they’re damn well going to enjoy it. _

It’s then that he realizes that Kravitz also disappeared shortly after they arrived, and  _ that’s _ when the high elf really gets annoyed. Lup is off on a bounty, told him that she would be arriving a little later in the afternoon, but his husband has absolutely  _ no _ excuse in the realm of just  _ up and fuckin’ ghosting on this party, pun intended. _

His face is stinging with the flush of frustration when he arrives at the house that Magnus built. The house that he watched, hot and bothered, while Magnus built. The house that, up until late last night, he spent cooking the bulk of the food for the days festivities in.

Really, it’s the only place that he expects them to be, and the smell of matcha that hits his senses as he enters tells him enough.

Leaving his boots on, though he knoooows that Julia  _ and  _ Lucretia will scold him for it, Taako strides easily into the latter’s library as if he lives there.

Nevermind the fact that he kind of does, because his tentative residency in Raven’s Roost is  _ not _ the focus here.

True to form, he finds Julia on one of the softer sofas, tucked between Lucretia and Kravitz. They stop speaking as he walks into the room, planting his hands on his hips.

“What in the goddamn are you three doing in here?” Taako snaps.

Julia looks at Kravitz, betrayed and scandalized. “You said we had time.”

“Hey, no. No! I said we  _ might _ have time,” the reaper laughs, patting the back of her hand. “And to be fair, we did get a little distracted.”

“A little?! You’re in here, having a hen party-  _ is that my matcha-  _ when I put all this effort into the party happening out there-” and Lucretia lifts a hand to her mouth, the way her eyes crinkle at the corners telling him that the refined Wallflower-turned-Director-turned-metamour is  _ laughing at him _ . “Creesh, now is not the time.”

“Now is most certainly the time, Taako,” she replies, and tears start to well up in her eyes, and that’s what  _ confirms _ that she’s laughing at him before her shoulders start shaking.

“Honestly. You’re a mess, Creesh, an absolute mess,” he huffs, tossing his dark braid over his shoulder and narrowing his eyes at Kravitz and Julia. “And you two-” he starts, but stops as Kravitz helps Julia to her feet and the dwelf holds out an elegantly wrapped gift.

A slender hand closes the space between them, hesitantly taking the small package.

“Julia, I don’t know if you know this, but April 28th is  _ your _ birthday, bubbeleh,” he says, holding the little box in both hands. “You’re supposed to get the gifts, not give them.”

Julia hums, tipping her head left then right in that way that he knows to mean  _ you’re right, but I’m overruling you, because I’m cute, and I can _ . “I’ll get gifts later, because you can’t help yourself-”   
“Mn, true-”

“And,” Kravitz interjects, in that soft, lovely way of his. “This is important.”

It’s something about the way that he says it, the way that his tongue wraps around the word  _ important _ that makes Taako want to stop protesting. He actually looks at the little box in his hands. It’s wrapped in silver paper, with the cutest little white bow. 

“There’s no way that anybody but Lucy wrapped this,” he tells them suspiciously. “It’s not another deflated macaron, is it?”

Lucretia sighs at him, rolls silver-blue eyes. “For Istus’ knitting- Taako, just open the box,” she insists, and for a second, she sounds like that sweet twenty year-old girl again, absolutely exasperated with him at every second.

 

So…

 

He does.

 

He tugs the ribbon off gently, handing it off to Kravitz and smiling at the soft cold of his smooth hands. Careful fingertips slip under the lid of the box, and what he finds inside is not what he’s expecting.

 

They’re a very, very tiny pair of boots that look to be modeled after a pair that he loves to wear but never has the occasion to, a rich indigo leather with sterling silver stitching. Julia insists, regularly, that they go out and do something so that he can finally wear them, but they don’t, so he hasn’t shown them off since after the Phandalin incident.

They’re so small, almost as if they were made specifically for a-

_ No. _

_ Oh, no. _

 

And it’s his turn to stand helpless, eyes filling with unbidden tears, and Julia’s laugh is musical and bright, like the first time he heard it, like she just  _ breathes _ bardic inspiration to everyone around her.

“Jules-” his breath catches, and he sniffles, tipping his head up to the ceiling. “Oh, you absolute bitch, my eyeliner-” and she laughs again as he starts fanning his face.

“Happy birthday, in advance,” she tells him. “Magnus doesn’t know yet.”

“Kravitz only knows first because he found out while she was waiting on the results,” Lucretia supplies, producing a handkerchief from what he swears is a pocket dimension. He takes it, dabbing carefully at his face and trying to maintain the aloof image he’s crafted for himself. 

Still, the wizard can’t help but cradle the baby shoes to his chest, loathe to let anyone touch them. He never has good things, still holds Ango like he’s afraid that the boy will turn to dust in his hands, and holds these little shoes that will soon hold equally little feet the same way.

“Oh, Jules,” he murmurs, and bridges the distance to wrap his arms around her.

He… can’t find the words. He’s still bad at this, talking about his feelings. It’s unfortunate, really, given he’s basically married into this orgy-family of emotional talkers, but Julia seems to get it, wrapping her arms around his slighter frame and keeping him close. Their family is going to grow by one more, and Taako’s happy, and sometimes when Taako is happy, he just doesn’t say. 

He’ll get there.

In a couple weeks.

Like when she starts to show and stuff and then he can’t escape the fact that  _ holy crap _ , Magnus and Julia are having a baby.

Tipping his head to rub his cheek into her hair, Taako sighs softly.

“What?” Julia asks, pulling away to look up at him.

“Oh, nothing. I just hope you know that Lulu is going to be incredibly upset that you told me you’re having a baby first, and with a miniature of my super-fly boots that I won't let her borrow.”

Julia’s grin is the sun.

“Don’t worry, she'll get over it when she gets a baby on her birthday,” she says. “And you know that dopeass biker jacket she has?”


End file.
